Incumbent North Haledon mayor fends off primary challenge

NORTH HALEDON — Mayor Randy George, facing a Republican primary opponent for the first time in his 15 years as mayor, fended off a challenge from North Haledon Board of Education President Michael Jordan by an 818-519 vote.

NORTH HALEDON

Republicans

Mayor

Randolph J. George * 818

Michael Richard Jordan 519

Incumbents are indicated by an asterisk. The vote totals are unofficial.

Some opponents have seen George as vulnerable after he borrowed borough generators in the days after Superstorm Sandy to power his ice cream parlor. He returned the generators and apologized for what he called a “mistake,” but some critics said the incident represented the actions of a person in power for too long.

In November, two Democrats were elected to the council for the first time in 14 years over longtime incumbents, a surprising result that Democrats saw as a repudiation of George.

George ran unopposed the last two elections. In 2002, he crushed his Democratic opponent by a 3-1 ratio.

Jordan campaigned on a call for change and tried to gain traction by criticizing George for backing the closure of Fire Company 1. Jordan — with strong backing from company members, including John Bleeker, an outspoken critic of George’s — said he would examine reopening the firehouse. He also said he would work to pull the borough out of Manchester Regional High School, a position most borough residents, including George, support because, they say, North Haledon property owners are subsidizing the education of students from Prospect Park and Haledon.

George is favored to win in the general election against Councilman Dennis Marco, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination. In North Haledon, 2,047 voters are registered Republicans, 1,142 are Democrats and 2,816 are unaffiliated, according to the municipal clerk.

Marco was one of two Democrats elected to the council last year with the support of Councilman Bob Dyer, a Republican who split with his party.

Dyer, who had been gathering signatures to run as an independent, said in an interview on Monday that he would not run for mayor and also would not seek reelection to the council next year. He did not file his petition signatures by the Tuesday deadline.